Our house sits on what used to be an orchard, and many, many of the fruit trees are still left. Oh, and the stream that was diverted to feed the trees still runs under the land, and pops up in springs all over. While both of these things might seem like pluses, they are actually a huge pains in the ass. The water makes our backyard so swampy that watercress grows wild and only a third of the land is usable, unless we decide to start a mud wrestling club. The fruit would be good, if we didn't spend so much time sweeping it up off the ground or smelling it rotting in the grass. It used to attract raccoons until we cut back all of the blackberry bushes where they lived. Honestly, most of the time our yard makes me wish for one of those astroturf fantasies from the fifties. Of course, then I would miss out on the birds.
Right now pretty much every type of bird in Utah is making it's home in our backyard. There are wrens. There are robins. There are grackles. There are doves. There are ducks. And, of course, there is my favorite, the crazy hummingbird. I love this guy. He is obviously a juvenile or male, because his red and green are not that bright yet. In fact, at first I thought he was just a hyper wren. While he isn't the prettiest hummingbird though, he might be the bravest. He seems to have no fear, and really loves coming up to the window when we are looking out.
I have tried to take a picture of him, but I think hummingbirds must be like vampires, and not visible on film. Every time I have tried I just end up with a blur, or a picture of the background. I am actually thinking of getting a hummingbird feeder, but instead of filling it with sugar water filling it with that True Blood stuff. Then maybe I'll get the greatest picture of all time. I mean, especially if it's of the night's we are having Bigfoot over for dinner.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
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12 comments:
I can totally get why you see all this as a pain in the ass. I would probably even see the bird colony you're forming as a pain too. I tend not to sleep well so the birds chirping away early in the morning would drive me insane.
Try recording a video of crazy hummingbird instead, if you haven't already thought of that. We had a not so bright hawk living here last year. The bird literally attacked a pine cone as if it could run away. Hilarious but sad at the same time.
We have a ton of birds in our yard, too. And while I love seeing them, the little fuckers wake me up every morning.
One of the summers I worked on Block Island (small island off the coast of RI) a bird had made a nest in the outside wall of our house. On the inside of that wall was my bed. Those damn baby birds drove me batty. So much freaking noise, so early in the morning.
Our house was built on a corn field. After 20 years, the mice are still trying to retake their land. Assholes...
Our house sits on an old Indian burial ground.
My house is on an old Stockyard.....
Be thankful you don't have bluejays. They may be pretty but they are the Don of the birds. Evil.
I live in a desert where we have to plant and water everything so it doesn't look like stark nothingness. Bluh.
We had a mockingbird that lived outside our bedroom window for several months. I wanted to kill it.
Do they poop on your head often? I hear that's good luck.
Nothing nature-y cums in my yard. Er, what's that supposed to mean? Birds hate my family?
We get a HUGE flock of crows in our yard every night at dinner. It's like a scene out of the movie!
We have some heavily wooded land all around us. I love it. This year we've had a lot more blue birds, and I've begun to pick up on a lot of the calls of different birds. I used to know all the standard ones (swifts, cardinals, mourning doves, robins, mockingbirds, hummingbirds...). My new favorite is the red-eyed vireo.
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